West
Watkins Glen State Park
Marshland at the end of Seneca Lake
Hiking Rock Cabin Road
Super dusty I'm glad I have a mask 😷. I thought the rain would have cut down on the dust.
Taken on Saturday August 15, 2020 at Catharine Creek WMA.
August 14, 2020 Afternoon
Good afternoon! Partly sunny and 82 degrees at Montour Falls. There is a north breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 62 degrees.
Well, Happy Friday. 😊 It’s been a beautiful week, I find it hard to believe I’ve been in the Finger Lakes for seven 7⃣ days now. How fast the time passes ⏳. I kind of am enjoying the more low key 🗝 vacation, relaxing more and trying to spend more time places I’ve not experienced much in the past.
This afternoon will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 87 degrees at 3pm. Six degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 62 at 12pm. North wind 6 to 9 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 84 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1988.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:13 pm with sun having an altitude of 61.8° from the due south horizon (-9.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:32 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (284°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (290°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:11 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 4 seconds with dusk around 8:39 pm, which is one minute and 26 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:18 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 78 degrees. The dew point will be 61 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 13 hours and 55 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 30 seconds over yesterday.
Today promises to be another hot and sunny summer day ☀ which I think will be good for hiking this morning 🚶🏻and swimming 🏊🏻♂️ in the afternoon. Like much of my vacation I’m not in much of a rush to do anything. I do want to get coffee ☕ and apple juice this morning 🍏before starting out so I don’t forget as another morning without coffee sucks. 🛒
Definitely without the rain ☔ it’s gotten really dry and dusty 🌫️ here – a car passes and all you see is dust. Fortunately this year I chose a campsite far enough off the road that the dust isn’t falling in my breakfast 🥣 or coffee ☕ as has happened some years before – things aren’t as super dry as the 2015 drought but still quite dry. The weather has been really good all week.
Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 63 degrees at 5am. Three degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 63 at 1am. North wind around 6 mph becoming calm in the evening. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 62 degrees. The record low of 48 occurred back in 1964.
Back in 1962, Two gunmen hijacked a mail truck in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and made off with $1.5 million. 🚚💰Talk about going postal. ✉ It had to have been an inside job.
Tomorrow will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 84 degrees at 3pm. Three degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 63 at 6am. Southeast wind 3 to 8 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 83 degrees. The record high of 96 was set in 1959.
Should be another great day. 🎣 I just want to stay out of the crowded parks 👩👩👦👦 so I’ll probably instead go to Caywood Point to fish abs swim and hang out. And just relax and read 📖 in camp ⛺.
Looking ahead to Sunday, showers likely, mainly after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 79. Southeast wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Maximum dew point of 62 at 7am. Typical average high for the weekend is 81 degrees.
Sunday I will take down camp and head home. 🏡 I have no deadline to get home except maybe before dark 🌆 so I’ll probably have a relaxed take down, read 📖 and visit Taughannock Park 🏞.
Been occasionally glancing at the work emails 📧 realizing next week will be busy when I get back and realize there is so much I normally do on work days I’ve been able to lay aside as I relax and do fun things during vacation. After Sunday, my nose 👃🏻 will be to the grind stone 💼 and it will be busy, busy through November. But I’m still hopeful to take a late November or December trip much like I did two years ago.
Somehow I thought taking the week slowly 🐢 and planning less for summer vacation would make the week last longer. If any thing it made it go by quicker. 🐰 The truth be told that the relaxed pace just made the clock move by quicker. ⏳But maybe doing less kept me a bit safer from COVID-19.
Looking ahead, there are 3 weeks until Labor Day Weekend Begins 👨🏭 when the sun will be setting at 7:35 pm with dusk at 8:04 pm. On that day in 2019, we had thunderstorm and temperatures between 80 and 59 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 77 degrees. We hit a record high of 97 back in 1929.
There are two weekends left before Labor Day Weekend after this weekend. ⛺ I would like to get to Burnt Rossman forest and camp a weekend there and swim 🏊🏻♂️ in the Mine Kill Pool. After the Watkins Glen Pool I’m less panicked about visiting a swimming pool during the pandemic, especially if it’s not crowded – Mine Kill rarely is. Labor Day Weekend 👷 if it’s nice I might tent camp.
I’m remote working part of that weekend but I can camp where there is cell service and bring my work laptop 💻and phone. Early to mid September I’m hoping Piseco-Powley Road will be open, and then after a nice weekend at the Potholers I’ll do remote work from Speculator for a few days.🍁🍂 October I’m thinking about a weekend trip with remote work from Stoney Pond State Forest 🐠🐟 and Cherry Ridge Camping Area 🍒
Barge Canal
Stone Bathrooms Building
I made the mistake of flipping through a Facebook car advertisement 🚗
I made the mistake of flipping through a Facebook car advertisement 🚗🤑🏛️
And like that my information was sold through the internet and one advertisement led to another. My bank emailed me reminding me once again that they have very low interest rates on auto loans.
The internet might be all knowing but it also seems like it makes a lot of mistakes. For one, my love of clicking on and reading about low income services, has lead the internet to assume I’m interested in buying another clunker, that I need creative finance at high interest rates to make it happen. Plus I’m curious how much residual value my truck has for shits and giggles. If I bought another car, I’d probably use cash. That said, I’m interested in trolling marketers and like reading the fine print of subprime dealers. I’d also not buy an old truck when I already own one.
But I’m in no hurry to buy a car. Big Red probably has at least another year or more of life left, and new cars (that is big 4x4s) are so expensive. The alignment has dramatically slowed the tire wear on the 35s. New cars are cheaper when you buy with cash but still expensive. I might try to go car less for a few years to save money and get to know my community and neighborhood better – and just rent a car for vacations. I feel like I miss so much of world by motoring rather than walking or bicycling. It would certainly help to reduce my carbon footprint, says the boy in the big jacked up truck.